Third generation Harlemite, in exile since 1998, a place to post notes on my homeland, NYC. In the 80's I was fighting crack & aids, the 90's teaching folks how to compute. Harlem is a state of soul, even though the poverty pimps are still running it as a plantation. I am confident the people are overcoming.

Most of what I've looked at over the years has been information on known cancers from exposure to the chemicals on the list of toxins.

Both cancers, squamous and mesothelioma, result from chronic chemical, petroleum by-products or asbestos exposure. Exposure increases risk, and folks have been exposed to large quantities of toxic material for years now.

We have to stop pretending not to know. Since September 11, 2001, folks in parts of New York, New Jersey and Connecticut have been breathing, eating and drinking the dust from the World Trade Center.

Folks have been exposed to known carcinogens, and we need to deal with this situation now.

People in New York were told “We need you strong.” Rather than evacuate the area, the city was put on lock down, and the EPA report was manipulated by the White House to reflect minimal danger in the dust. There was no choice but to consume the toxins.

From WTC Volunteer Albert Davis’ book (As told to Terri Suess ) on his experience, GETTING TO GROUND ZERO:

“The bottom line was there was a shortage of masks. I was able to get one box of matching masks and filters and delivered them to where they were needed, near the “Hole”.

They were gone in an instant.

I thought of asking rescue workers for their masks when they came out of the site to take a break so the next rescue worker could use it. No one else thought that idea would work so I abandoned it.”

SCC can happen internally due to breathing petroleum by-products. I am dealing with this on a personal level now, which is the catalyst for these observations.

My mother-in-love, Edith Akuna, 69, worked for General Motors in Van Nuys, CA in the 1980’s. Her job on the finishing line was to put the stickers on new cars, approving the engine worked. She also pumped gas into the cars for part of her time there. To do her job, Edith breathed the chemicals off the new, 'starting for the first time' cars for years. After developing respiratory problems, she was put on complete disability about 12 years ago. Edith, who was otherwise healthy, died of SCC, the kind that results from chemical exposure.

SCC is usually a skin cancer. Because she breathed the chemicals, the SCC was on her internal organs. She had a mass that went from the top of her neck down her right lung, a second tumor lower on her lungs and one on each kidney.

As the doctors were explaining the nature of squamous cell cancer I thought, ‘chemicals, like what the folks consumed on 9/11?' I made the connection between WTC Illness and SCC because the transformer oil and the thousands of gallons of jet fuel, plus the pulverized plastics (petroleum by-products and other chemicals) are what folks in at least part of the tri state area have been consuming, like Edith did at her job.

We know based on Edith's job description and interviews with co-workers that petroleum by-products are on the list. Of course they have not released the list. They said they'll get back to her son. That was two years ago.

There was, as estimated by the NRDC, between 300-400 tons of asbestos released into the air, pulverized, when the buildings fell. From the mesothelioma-net.org site:“ Pleural mesothelioma or cancer of the lung lining is the most common form of mesothelioma cancer. Peritoneal mesothelioma is stomach lining cancer and is the next most common form of mesothelioma.”

Nearly everyone is exposed to asbestos at some time in their lives. It becomes a health concern when asbestos fibers are breathed in at high concentrations over a long time period. As a person’s exposure to fibers increases, either by breathing more fibers or by breathing fibers for a longer time, that person’s risk of disease also increases. It can take anywhere from 10 to 40 years for someone to develop a specific illness after their exposure. Disease is very unlikely to result from a single, high-level exposure, or from a short period of exposure to lower levels.”

But the asbestos was blown into buildings, into fabrics that people interact with, and though the WTC area has been cleaned up, much of the surrounding area has not and the dusty material was transported in open trucks.

More from the CDC on September 13, 2001. “What are some things that can be done to limit exposure? For the general public, the further an individual is from the site of dust generation, the less exposure there will be to high levels of asbestos. The best advice is to avoid or limit dust exposure as much as possible.”

People were told that the dust was limited to lower Manhattan. That was just not true. Paper was found from the WTC as far east as Long Island. If a piece of paper could travel that far, imagine how far the dust traveled, based on prevailing winds.”

CONCLUSION George Carlin told a joke about how what use to be called “shell shock” is now “post traumatic stress disorder.” His point was adding more words to describe a situation is not always a good thing. We need to call the next phase of world trade center illness what it is - C A N C E R or toxic synergy.

Regular cancer screening and treatment needs to be available at no cost for all exposed.